Pokemon Black & White

Why wait for E3 to announce your biggest game of next year, right? First, Sony goes and reveals Killzone 3, and now Nintendo has revealed North American release plans for Pokémon Black and White for DS. The next generation of Pokémon will be released in spring 2011.

There are few known details about this new Pokémon game, other than the existence of a new city environment, the designs for the new starter Pokémon, and the fact that the Black and White versions are supposed to represent a "rebirth" for the franchise. Today, along with the North American release window announcement, Nintendo revealed that the box art for Pokémon Black will feature the legendary Pokémon Reshiram and White will feature Zekrom; as seen above (via Pokemon.com). So, you can start planning your purchase based on your preference between two freaky winged things.

Pokémon Black Version and White Version (ポケットモンスターブラック・ホワイト Poketto Monsutā Burakku Howaito?, "Pocket Monsters: Black & White") comprise the upcoming fifth generation of the core Pokémon series of RPGs.[4] The games are set to be released in September 2010 in Japan.[1] As of May 2010, there have been 7 total Pokémon announced, two of which appear in the thirteenth Pokémon film in Japanese theaters on July 10, 2010.[5] The games have been revealed to be released outside Japan in Spring 2011.[

Development

On January 29, 2010, the Pokémon Company announced that a new game was in development for the Nintendo DS to be released later that year.[6][7] Director Junichi Masuda stated that several aspects of the series were being revamped for the new generation.[8] On April 9, 2010, the Japanese website updated with the titles of the versions as Pokémon Black and White, and announced a Fall 2010 release date.[9] The games will feature an improved visual style from other Pokémon games, with an increased use of 3D computer graphics than other games but they will not be Nintendo 3DS-exclusive.[10][11]

Promotion

A silhouette of a new Pokémon was shown by Junichi Masuda on the February 7, 2010, episode of Pokémon Sunday, stated to be in the upcoming film for the summer and to be identified in a future episode on February 21. [12] This new character would also be featured in the March 2010 issue of CoroCoro Comic available on February 15, and is the start of the fifth generation of the Pokémon franchise. Since then, the character has been named "Zoroark" (ゾロアーク Zoroāku?), and it evolves from a character named "Zorua" (ゾロア Zoroa?). Both are to be featured in Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl The Movie: Phantom Ruler: Zoroark.[13][14] On April 9, 2010, the official Pokémon website updated with the titles of the game versions, Black and White, and later on April 15 released several screenshots from the new games.[4] This was also printed in the May issue of CoroCoro Comic.On April 18, 2010, the episode of Pokémon Sunday showed game footage of a player character walking around in a 3-D environment and a single screenshot depicting a battle between the player's Zoroark and an enemy Zorua. Host Shoko Nakagawa made note of how the player's Zoroark's sprite was a full body sprite as viewed from behind, when in the past all such sprites only showed a smaller portion of the player's Pokémon's body.[15] On May 9, 2010, the episode of Pokémon Sunday revealed silhouettes of the three Pokémon that are available for the player to choose from at the beginning of the game.[16] These three Pokémon are the Grass Snake Pokémon Tsutarja (ツタージャ Tsutāja?), the Fire Pig Pokémon Pokabu (ポカブ?) and the Sea Otter Pokémon Mijumaru (ミジュマル?).[17] Other information revealed is that the game takes place in the Isshu Region (イッシュ地方 Isshu-chihō?) which is centered around the Hiun City (ヒウンシティ Hiun Shiti?) metropolis.[18] On May 16, 2010, the episode of Pokémon Sunday showed game battle footage, illustrating the new in-battle animations and dynamic camera positioning; also described were Zoroark's Illusion ability and the in game encounter against a special Zoroark activated by the alternate-colored Raikou, Entei, and Suicune given to ticket pre-orders for the upcoming Phantom Ruler: Zoroark film.[19] On May 28, 2010, the official Pokémon website revealed the identities and physical appearances of two new Legendaries: Reshiram (レシラム Reshiramu?) and Zekrom (ゼクロム Zekuromu?), both of which will be named the same in the English version.[20] Reshiram and Zekrom will appear on the boxarts of Pokémon Black and Pokémon White respectively.[20]